Happy Thanksgiving IC3 Community,
In this special holiday edition, we’re bringing you a roundup of research and community developments from IC3. We are also thrilled to announce the launch of a new initiative: the IC3-Cornell Blockchain Accelerator. Enjoy reading and we wish you a joyful Thanksgiving!
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Props for Machine-Learning Security by Ari Juels (Cornell Tech, IC3) & Farinaz Koushanfar (University of California San Diego)
- The authors propose protected pipelines (Props), a new method for authenticated, privacy-preserving access to deep-web data for machine learning. Props address the challenge of limited high-quality training data while enabling secure inference with sensitive data and constraining adversarial inputs. This approach is practical by using privacy-preserving oracle systems that were originally designed for blockchain applications,
Autobahn: Seamless high speed BFT by Neil Giridharan (UC Berkeley), Florian Suri-Payer (Cornell, IC3), Ittai Abraham (Intel Labs), Lorenzo Alvisi (Cornell, IC3), Natacha Crooks (UC Berkeley)
- The authors introduce Autobahn, a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) protocol that combines asynchronous data dissemination with low-latency consensus to achieve high throughput, low latency, and seamless recovery from disruptions. It avoids the performance hangovers of traditional protocols and halves the latency of DAG-based BFT systems while matching their throughput.
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Our new research blog Improving Digital Asset Security by Deepak Maram (Mysten Labs, IC3 Alum), Mahimna Kelkar (Cornell Tech, IC3) & Ittay Eyal (Technion, IC3): The authors examine interactive authentication mechanisms that could enhance wallet security, helping crypto users transact more safely. | |
IC3 Co-Director and Prof. Ari Juels spoke on the Epicenter Podcast about the risks of AI exploiting smart contracts under the "Code is Law" principle. Drawing from his novel The Oracle, he highlighted the crucial role of oracles in connecting AI systems with blockchain. | |
IC3 Research Program Manager Sarah Allen spoke at Devcon in Bangkok on Dark DAOs and Private Coordination: while TEEs offer enhanced security, they can also pose challenges in blockchains. Sarah shared how TEEs can help tackle these issues. Read the full paper on Dark DAOs here. | |
IC3 Prof. William Lin Cong (Cornell) appeared on BNN Bloomberg to discuss AI's transformative impact on finance. He called for the need for global collaboration to tackle AI-driven threats like cybercrime and called for stronger, faster safeguards. Watch below: | IC3 Prof. Eswar Prasad (Cornell) in a recent NY Times article, raised doubts about Donald Trump’s new crypto venture, pointing to concerns over the team's expertise and potential conflicts with Trump’s personal and political interests. | IC3 alum Deepak Maram was recently featured in a Blockchain.News article on zkLogin. The IC3 research was later developed by Mysten Labs. It offers a user-friendly approach to cryptocurrency wallets. | In case you missed it, Deepak also presented this research at SBC'24, watch the full presentation: | Stablecoins present both opportunities and challenges to U.S. economic power, explains IC3 Prof. Eswar Prasad (Cornell) in an interview with Cointelegraph on the U.S. dollar's digital dilemma. | How could a Consensus Layer redesign shape Ethereum's future? IC3 Prof. Christian Cachin shares insights on Justin Drake's new vision "The Beam Chain" for Ethereum's consensus roadmap in a recent NewsBTC interview. | |
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IC3 alum Prof. Fan Zhang (Yale University) is seeking PhD students to join his group at Yale CS! If you have a strong background in system security and/or applied cryptography and are passionate about decentralized systems, consider applying. Learn more: https://fanzhang.me/research-group/
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Jiasun Li, Assistant Professor at GMU, is offering guaranteed five-year funding for motivated PhD students starting Fall 2025. Join his group to explore blockchain, financial economics, and the intersection of finance and computer science. This opportunity is open to applicants from diverse academic backgrounds, including CS, economics, EE, or STEM fields. Please find more details here: business.gmu.edu/phd business.gmu.edu/gradapp The application deadline is Jan 15.
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ETHDenver 2025 Update: Get Ready for the Second Wave of Speaker Submissions for ETHDenver 2025! The second application window for speaker submissions will open from December 4-11. Don’t miss your chance to share your insights at one of the biggest blockchain events!
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New: IC3 is excited to announce that our Winter Retreat 2025 will take place in Switzerland in the New Year.
We'll share more details, including sponsorship opportunities, in the coming weeks. In the meantime, go here to see highlights from our 2024 Winter Retreat.
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Eligibility and Sponsorship Opportunity:
Please note that the winter retreat is an IC3 members event, limited to current IC3 partners, academic members, and fellows. Special exceptions will be made for industry professionals from companies sponsoring the winter retreat. Please reach out to IC3 Community Manager, Bria Han (jh2584@cornell.edu) to request sponsorship details and the application form. The sponsorship application is ONLY for non-IC3 members/partners, existing IC3 partners are invited to send up to 5 attendees to participate regardless of retreat-specific sponsorship.
| IC3-Cornell Blockchain Accelerator | We are thrilled to announce the launch of the IC3-Cornell Blockchain Accelerator, designed to drive growth in the blockchain ecosystem through research-industry collaboration and fostering innovative new projects in the space. Stay tuned as we release more details this December! | |
Make sure to follow us on X and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date on IC3 events and research. Thanks for reading! | |
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The Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3)
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